"Tales of the Abyss, classic gem now portable."

Tales of the Abyss is a gem of an RPG on the PS2 often over shadowed by more well known games like Final Fantasies, Kingdom Hearts, and many others. (Which I find common, others might not.) Tales of the Abyss I missed the first time immediately. And I regret it.

Story: The story of this game is fantastic. You start off as a boy named Luke, someone who has lost his memory from when he was a child and since then has lived his entire life in his manor in Baticul the capital of Kimalasca. You are quickly ejected from your manor however and your journey begins. What starts off as a journey back home evolves over time as new plot twists develop over time, characters come and go. And changes happen to the world.

Music: I absolutely love the music from this game. The songs fit well and have length so that if you spend a while in one area they do not become annoying. The music is actually done by multiple artists each focusing on different areas, like town themes, dungeons or battles.

Gameplay: What combat seems simple at first, becomes more and more complicated over the course of the game. At the very start you can simply move back and forth and use basic attacks and special attacks called Artes. It's best to try and chain attacks. As you progress through the game you'll gain more artes from leveling, side quests, and combining Artes that you know and using them enough. When you gain a magic user you can then use your artes after they have used theirs to enhance your artes with elements and change your attacks. Other things come into play like C. Core which give characters stat boosts, and depending on what stat boosts you add to your characters they will gain things called AD Skills. Combat evolves continually over the course of the game.

Visuals: The game looks well. Sure it's an old game but the images are crisp and clear, and there are cut scenes with fully animated and voiced parts. Also the 3D effects are nice. I find personally that the 3D on this game is the best of any I've played. This includes the popular Zelda, Mario Kart 7, and Mario 3D Land. From the moment I was able to walk around Luke's room everything was clearly defined and felt like it had it's own space in the environment and not layered.

Replay?: This game is worth the replay. It has the grade shop from other tales games. Letting you carry over certain items, skills, artes and c.cores and lots more. But it also lets you buy things like EXPx2 or even 10. It lets you buy Unknown difficult (monsters get hp and stats x16 and new abilities.) Also carrying over certain items or titles unlock skits and optional bosses previously unplayable. Even if you didn't gain everything on the first time through for those, 3 entire areas open up to you in New game+ when you play.

Bottom Line: If you own a 3DS and you like RPGs, go buy this. If you're a jRPG fan buy this game and you will be happy for ages. This is likely going to be the best RPG on the system for a long time.